ALPHA-1-FETOPROTEIN PRODUCTION DURING THE HEPATOCYTE GROWTH-CYCLE OF DEVELOPING RAT-LIVER

The relation of AFP production to DNA synthesis was investigated in newborn rat liver and in primary cultures of fetal rat hepatocytes, by combining immunoperoxidase AFP localization and autoradiography after 3H-thymidine labelling. The vast majority of AFP-positive hepatocytes did not incorporate 3H-thymidine after ≤4-h isotope pulses, suggesting that in the developing liver, essentially no production of AFP occurs in S, G2 or M phases of the hepatocyte cell life cycle. Serial or continuous thymidine labelling experiments further indicated that post-mitotic hepatocytes constitute a sizable fraction of AFP-producing cells. © 1979.